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OK I've added my say on the Daily Mail comments page. No idea if they will allow a factually true comment through their moderation! They do seem to like letting invective and misdirection through though.

Q I have heard there are new subsidies available to encourage drivers to buy electric cars. Can you tell me what models are available? — AL from Cambridge

A The government announced plans last week to give grants of between £2,000 and £5,000 to motorists who buy electric vehicles. The handouts will not be available until 2011. By then, a new breed of mass-market electric car should be available.

Smart, Mitsubishi, Nissan and Renault, among others, have announced plans to produce electric cars within three years. Some, such as the Smart ev, are already on trial. The grants will also apply to plug-in electric hybrids, such as the Chevrolet Volt, which is due to go on sale in 2012 in Europe.

Most of the electric vehicles now available in the UK are classed as quadricycles rather than cars. The bestselling model is the Reva G-Wiz, which costs £7,995, is made in India and is distributed in the UK by www.goingreen.co.uk. It has a range of 48 miles and a top speed of 51mph. There is also the MyCar (£9,995; made in Italy; www.evstores.co.uk; range of 60 miles). The Mega City Car costs £13,874 (www.mega-electric.co.uk; 50 miles).

None of those vehicles is likely to qualify for the grant because they will not fulfil the government’s requirement to “meet modern safety standards and have a range and top speed sufficient to give mass-market appeal”. The only car that might qualify and is available to order is the Tesla Roadster, an £87,100 electric sports car with a top speed of 130mph and a claimed range of 244 miles. A £5,000 grant will not make a big dent in that price tag.

So this glossy document seems to form or inform the UK govt's policy as reported in the press (thanks TEG for the find).

It starts off on the right footing, lots of worth claims and goals, etc. However, I was disappointed by the chart on p11, showing predicted commercial uptake of plug in hybrids and full EVs not starting to the middle of the next decade and also the long term aim of the program to get to HFC vehicles. There's a danger that the government's demonstration programmes may hold up commercial roll out.

BERR and other departments regularly put this kind of document out and on other topics the initiatives do fizzle out. It will be interesting to watch what happens with this and whether it survives a general election next year.

The four companies supplying the spiffy wheels are listed as the Lightning Car Company, Ecotricity cars, Westfield Sports cars and Delta motorsport. Though we're unsure of how the numbers breakdown exactly, we do know that two of the 21 are supposed to be Lightning GTs. Add to that at least one recently test-driven "wind car" from carbon-free energy supplier Ecotricity and Westfield kicking in vehicles based on both their Lotus 7-derived Westfield Sport and the GTM Libra. Delta Motorsport will represent with the E-4 Coupe that is said to zip to 60 mph in under 5 seconds and travel 250 miles on a charge. While no dates were given for the trial, we expect it should start sometime early next year if it's to stay somewhat contemporaneous with the overall trial.

UK Low Carbon Transition Plan

- More than 1.2 million people will be in green jobs
- 7 million homes will have benefited from whole house makeovers, and more than - 1.5 million households will be supported to produce their own clean energy
- Around 40% of electricity will be from low carbon sources, from renewables, nuclear and clean coal
- We will be importing half the amount of gas that we otherwise would
- The average new car will emit 40% less carbon than now.

From the associated report:

Supporting the low carbon vehicles and
fuels of the future:

Over the next 18 months around 500
electric and lower carbon cars and
vans will take to UK roads through
Government programmes. This includes
the largest project of its kind in the
world, demonstrating electric cars in
real-world situations. In several cases
this represents the first time that these
vehicles will have been used.

Providing help worth about £2,000 to
£5,000 towards reducing the price of
low carbon cars from 2011, and up to
£30 million to support the installation of
electric vehicle charging infrastructure in
six or so cities across the UK.

Vehicles will be required to have a maximum tailpipe emission of 75g CO2/km to qualify for the discount scheme that could slash up to £5,000 off the price of a new car when it becomes active from 2011.